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DEATH IS NOTHING AT ALL

Robert Beeby

Death is nothing at all.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
I am I, and you are you.
Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.
Call me by my old familiar name.
Speak to me in the easy way you always used.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Life means all that it ever meant.
There is absolutely unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you…for an interval…somewhere near…
Just around the corner.
All is well.

Henry Scott Holland

HYMN

The day thou gavest, Lord is ended;
the darkness falls at thy behest;
to thee our morning hymns ascended;
thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

We thank thee that our Church unsleeping
while earth rolls onward into light,
through all the world her watch is keeping,
and rests not now by day or night.

As o’er each continent and island
the dawn leads on another day,
the voice of prayer is never silent,
nor dies the strain of praise away.